The Ghetto: Rock, beer, graffiti

When The Ghetto first opened in the mid-90s it quickly became the preferred hangout for an entire generation of well-to-do South Mumbai residents -- post-liberalization youth armed with a Western education and a taste for rum, beer and billiards.

Today it still plays sing-a-long friendly 1980s rock music, accompanied by the boisterous guffaws of one of the owners, Thomas. The pool table is there too, and the handiwork of artists and patrons from over the decades, covers every inch of the walls with drunken limericks or slogans referring mainly to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. 

First-timers to The Ghetto should beware, it has a strict "no-stag do" policy, and it is strictly enforced by the capped and tuxedoed doorman. Oh, and the strange lighting inside tends to give eyes and teeth a ghoulish tinge while turning clothes embarrassingly translucent.

But there's something so awesome about a bar that still doesn't have a proper door despite being open for two decades, and whose entrance is a hole in the wall which the thousands of people passing by during the day would hardly notice.